If Sam Langford had contented himself with fighting in his best weight class 175lbs,would he be bracketed with Charles, Moore, Foster, Tunney,Spinks etc? How would he do against the great light heavies?
That's the obvious question, you just don't know who's going to say yes and who's going to duck. I bet Dillon would fight him.
At this time LHW was such a backwater, a stopping point between MW and HW, and in some parts not even really considered a real class that its almost a moot point.
More interesting topic, what if Packey McFarland knew that he'd never get a title shot at lightweight and moved up to welterweight, say, in 1909 or 1910. Would he be ranked among the best welterweights in history? At least the choice of possible opponents would be greater than in Langford's 175 lbs case.
That wouldn't really affect his retrospective standing though. If he beat up Dillon, Levinsky, Kid Norfolk, Miske, Greb (!),Gunboat Smith, Jeff Clark, etc., he'd be very highly regarded now.
So the dearth of good opponents would have detracted from his legacy? Dillon ,Miske, Levinsky, Klaus, Moha etc? Would these have been considered viable opponents?
Sam Langford and Tommy Burns could both have clained the LHW title, but they didn't even think it worth their while to bother. I think it would have been an unsustainable career choice at the time.
He's probably already regarded as one of the best lhw fighters in history anyways. The reality is though the division was barely recognised so Philly never really had to put his belt on the line.had he done so there's no given that Langford could beat him. Had he beaten him there's no given that he wouldn't get blinded by richness and draw the colour line himself. For those ranking on things like resume it makes a difference I guess, but for me nothing really changes.